RICHARDS Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT), today acknowledged for the first time there was a proposal to sell shares in the facility to Vitol, a Dutch trading firm.
In a brief statement titled ‘Proposed transaction: purchase of Optimum Coal Terminal (PTY) LTD by Vitol SA from Tegeta Exploration & Resources’, the company’s CEO, Alan Waller said: “The RBCT board is following due process with this matter”.
Optimum holds a 7.5% stake in the RBCT which would be equivalent to an annual export quota of six million tonnes (mt) of coal at a total annual terminal throughput of 81mt. Optimum obtained that quota through a BEE deal when it was created as a separately listed company by BHP Billiton as part of that group’s effort to meet South African BEE requirements.
At the 2015 total export level of 75mt from the RBCT, the Optimum stake would have amounted to 5.5mt worth $360m in revenues at current coal prices FOB Richards Bay of around $65/t.
Oakbay subsidiary Tegeta Exploration bought Optimum in April for R2.15bn in a deal approved by business rescue practitioners Piers Marsden and Peter van den Steen and agreed to by former owner Glencore.
The sale of the export quota, which market sources said would be for $250m (about R3.6bn) would pay off the purchase price and leave Tegeta/Oakbay with a R1.5bn profit.
Oakbay Resources & Energy CEO, Jacques Roux, said earlier this week Tegeta had no deal. “I can only repeat what the CEO of Oakbay Investments said today: and that is there is no deal in front of us,” he said. “That is not saying there won’t be a deal in the future,” he added.
